René Magritte | L'utopie (Utopia), 1945

Painted in June 1945, René Magritte (Belgian surrealist artist, 1898-1967) himself described the scene in L'utopie in his publication, Dix tableaux de Magritte précédes de descriptions, published the following year.

There, he explained that, 'The rose is alone on an island'..

This sense of the solitude of the flower, already emphasised by the span of the distant horizon and the vastness of the ocean, is thus reinforced by Magritte's statement and his own declared intention.

How did the rose reach this island?

René Magritte | L'utopie (Utopia), 1945

This strange and solitary bloom is a glimpse of the poetic and the mysterious, even the miraculous, and is all the more striking as an image of hope in the wake of the Occupation of Belgium, which had only recently ended.

The promontory and the rose in L'utopie appear to have been painted in the mock-Impressionist style that Magritte referred to as Surréalisme en plein soleil.

Where his earlier works had deliberately avoided a sense of 'style' in the rendering of their strange and incongruous subjects, he now added an extra layer of the incongruous by emphasising the painting's status as a subjective representation of the world, while also taking advantage of the association between Impressionism and Realism.

He thus introduced a tension between a style of painting associated with capturing a moment of fleeting 'reality' and his own surreal, poetic universe, while also providing a glimpse of sunlight during the dark days of the Second World War.

At the same time, he revelled in shocking even his most ardent followers by deliberately and irreverently adopting a style that was then associated with bourgeois taste.

Magritte's Surrealism was intended to jolt his viewers out of a complacent understanding of the world around them, but he was aware that his own admirers and followers had developed expectations of his works.

L'utopie and its sister-works of sunlit Surrealism shocked his viewers out of their complacent understandings of his pictures and of the universe alike.

The first owner of L'utopie was Achille Chavée, a writer, friend of Magritte and leading member of the Hainaut group of Surrealists who owned several of the artist's pictures.

During the period that L'utopie was painted, the pair collaborated extensively on a large exhibition of Belgian Surrealism that was held at the Galerie des Editions La Boétie in Brussels, an exhibition that was dominated by Magritte's own works, a fitting reflection of his importance to Surrealism in that nation. | Source: © Christie's

Rene Magritte in front of his painting, 1964 | Christie's

Dipinto nel giugno 1945, René Magritte (Artista surrealista Belga, 1898-1967) stesso descrisse la scena in L'utopie nella sua pubblicazione, Dix tableaux de Magritte précédes de descriptions, pubblicata l'anno seguente.

Lì, spiegò che "la rosa è sola su un'isola".

Questo senso di solitudine del fiore, già enfatizzato dalla distanza dell'orizzonte lontano e dalla vastità dell'oceano, è quindi rafforzato dall'affermazione di Magritte e dalla sua stessa dichiarata intenzione.

Come ha fatto la rosa a raggiungere quest'isola?

Questa strana e solitaria fioritura è uno scorcio del poetico e del misterioso, persino del miracoloso, ed è tanto più sorprendente come immagine di speranza sulla scia dell'occupazione del Belgio, che era appena terminata.

Il promontorio e la rosa in L'utopie sembrano essere stati dipinti nello stile finto-impressionista che Magritte chiamava Surréalisme en plein soleil.

Laddove le sue opere precedenti avevano deliberatamente evitato un senso di "stile" nella resa dei loro soggetti strani ed incongrui, ora aggiungeva un ulteriore strato di incongruo enfatizzando lo status del dipinto come rappresentazione soggettiva del mondo, sfruttando anche l'associazione tra impressionismo e realismo.

Introduceva così una tensione tra uno stile di pittura associato alla cattura di un momento di "realtà" fugace ed il suo universo surreale e poetico, offrendo anche uno scorcio di luce solare durante i giorni bui della seconda guerra mondiale.

Allo stesso tempo, si dilettava a scandalizzare persino i suoi seguaci più ardenti adottando deliberatamente e irriverentemente uno stile che era allora associato al gusto borghese.

Il Surrealismo di Magritte intendeva scuotere i suoi spettatori da una comprensione compiacente del mondo che li circondava, ma era consapevole che i suoi ammiratori e seguaci avevano sviluppato delle aspettative nei confronti delle sue opere.

L'utopie e le sue opere gemelle del Surrealismo illuminato dal sole sconvolsero i suoi spettatori dalla loro comprensione compiacente dei suoi quadri e dell'universo.

Il primo proprietario di L'utopie fu Achille Chavée, uno scrittore, amico di Magritte e membro di spicco del gruppo surrealista dell'Hainaut che possedeva diversi quadri dell'artista.

Durante il periodo in cui L'utopie fu dipinto, la coppia collaborò ampiamente ad una grande mostra del Surrealismo belga che si tenne alla Galerie des Editions La Boétie di Bruxelles, una mostra che fu dominata dalle opere dello stesso Magritte, un riflesso appropriato della sua importanza per il Surrealismo in quella nazione. | Fonte: © Christie's

René Magritte | Le Préméditation, 1943

"Before the war, my paintings expressed anxiety", René Magritte explained, "but the experiences of war have taught me that what matters in art is to express charm.

"I live in a very disagreeable world, and my work is meant as a counter-offensive".

Painted during the final months of 1943, Le Préméditation is one of the earliest in a series known as Le Surréalisme en plein soleil (Surrealism in sunshine), created by Belgian Surrealist René Magritte (1898-1967) during the turbulent years of the Second World War in the hope of re-enchanting daily life.

A radiant bouquet of springtime flowers all improbably sprouting from the same plant, Le Préméditation captures a magnificent vision of optimism and hope.

René Magritte | Premeditation, 1943 | Christie’s

Happy birthday to Théo van Rysselberghe, born on this day in 1862

Happy birthday to Théophile "Théo" van Rysselberghe (23 November 1862 - 13 December 1926), a Belgian neo-impressionist painter, who played a pivotal role in the European art scene at the turn of the twentieth century.

Van Rysselberghe discovered the pointillist technique when he saw Georges Seurat's La Grande Jatte at the eighth impressionist exhibition in Paris in 1886.

Together with Henry Van de Velde, Georges Lemmen, Xavier Mellery, Willy Schlobach and Alfred William Finch and Anna Boch he "imported" this style to Belgium.

Jean-Baptiste Madou | Genre painter

Jean-Baptiste Madou (1796-1877) was a Belgian painter and lithographer.

He created the Société Royale Belge des Aquarellistes.

Madou was born in Brussels.

He studied at the Brussels Academy of Fine Arts and was a pupil of Pierre Joseph Célestin François.

Alda Merini: "Tra le tue braccia"

C'è un posto nel mondo

dove il cuore batte forte,

dove rimani senza fiato,

per quanta emozione provi,

dove il tempo si ferma

e non hai più l'età;

Gis De Maeyer

Andrea Otte: "I Hope You Still Believe In Magic.."

"I am Andrea Otte a freelance photographer situated in Antwerp, Belgium, a dreamer and the creator of my own little world.

Just a little lady on a tiny planet, a positive thinker, a seeker of beauty and magic in everything.

I believe life is all about passion and finding your own kind of magic.

My eye for all the beauty around me, big and small, has always been active, but only the last four years I have been trying to capture the wonders of the world, accompanied by my Nikon D5300".

Jacques François Carabain (1834-1933)

Pittore di paesaggi ed architettura, Jacques François Carabain fu allievo dei maestri olandesi Jacobus Schoemaker Doyer e Valentijn Bing all'Accademia di Amsterdam.

I suoi viaggi lo portarono in Francia, Germania, Italia ed Austria, ma si stabilì in Belgio.

Era particolarmente interessato alle strutture medievali e barocche ed era spesso attratto dalle affollate piazze del mercato.

Le sue opere sono conservate nel Museo di Ypres e nel Museo Rudolfinum di Praga.

Vera Kober, 1986 | Abstract painter

Vera Kober was born and raised up in difficult periods of collapse during the former USSR in family of musicians.

She studied fine art in school in Ukraine and end it in 1999 but her wish to pursue art education in college was not possible due to challenges of moving to another country with the family.

But Kober continued painting where her soul breathes and love flourishes in the face of difficulties.

Pierre-Joseph Redouté | The Raphael of flowers

Pierre-Joseph Redouté (10 July 1759 - 19 June 1840), was a painter and botanist from Belgium, known for his watercolours of roses, lilies and other flowers at the Château de Malmaison, many of which were published as large, coloured stipple engravings.

He was nicknamed "the Raphael of flowers" and has been called the greatest botanical illustrator of all time.

Redouté produced over 2,100 published plates depicting over 1,800 different species, many never rendered before.

Redouté was an official court artist of Marie Antoinette, and continued painting through the French Revolution and Reign of Terror.

He survived the turbulent political upheaval to gain international recognition for his precise renderings of plants, which remain as fresh in the early 21st century as when first painted.

Gustave Van de Woestyne | Expressionist painter

From: Sotheby's

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In 1900, after art studies in his native city of Ghent, Gustave Van de Woestyne (1881-1947) settled in Sint-Martens-Latem, on the banks of the Leie river, where an artistic colony of poets, painters and sculptors had formed in search of an innovative and meaningful artistic expression.

His admiration for the technique and spirituality of the Flemish old masters led him to develop an art of mystic-religious symbolism and allegory.

He also drew inspiration from the Italian Primitives, Maurice Denis and fresco painting and became one of the figures of the "First School of Larthem".

Jean Gouweloos (1868-1943) | Genre painter

Jean Léon Henri Gouweloos was a Belgian genre and portrait painter as well as poster artist and lithographer.

Jean Gouweloos studied, like his brother Charles (1867-1946) from 1887-1890 and from 1893-1894 at the Académie royale des Beaux-Arts de Bruxelles.

He was also a student of the painter and decorator Charle-Albert.

Before studying, he made a living in Paris by drawing posters, then he worked in the family's printing house, which specialized in artistic printing.

Oscar Wilde / Rene Magritte | Quotes / Aforismi

Rene Magritte | A la rencontre du plaisir | Christies

▻ Avere avuto una buona educazione è un grande svantaggio. Ti esclude da tante cose.

▻ Nulla invecchia come la felicità...

▻ 'Esperienza' è il nome che tutti danno ai propri errori.

▻ «Come definiresti l'uomo malvagio?»

    «Quel tipo d'uomo che ammira l'innocenza».

    «E una donna malvagia?»

    «Quel tipo di donna di cui un uomo non si stanca mai».

▻ «Dicono che, quando muoiono, gli americani buoni vanno a Parigi.»

    «Veramente? E dove vanno gli americani cattivi, quando muoiono?»

    «Restano in America».

▻ Qual è la differenza tra la letteratura e il giornalismo? Oh! Il giornalismo è illeggibile e la letteratura non viene letta.

▻ A dire il vero, se le classi inferiori non ci danno il buon esempio, a che cosa servono? Esse tuttavia sembrano essere assolutamente prive del senso di responsabilità morale.

▻ A durare son soltanto le qualità superficiali. La natura più profonda di un uomo si scopre molto presto.

▻ A questo mondo vi sono solo due tragedie: una è non ottenere ciò che si vuole, l'altra è ottenerlo. Questa seconda è la peggiore, la vera tragedia.

Alexandre Debrus (1843-1905) | Still lifes painter

Alexandre Debrus was an Belgian painter🎨 of still lifes, flowers and portraits; watercolourist.

Alexandre Debrus was born in Spa in 1818 as the son of Jean Nicolas Debrus. He also died there in 1905.

He worked in England for some time and participated at the International Exhibition in Philadelphia in 1876.

His work is well recorded although little is known about his life. He exhibited in France and died in 1905.

19th century Inventions

Gaines Ruger Donoho (American painter, 1857-1916) | The Mount, 1880

The 19th century🎨 saw the birth of science as a profession; the term scientist was coined in 1833 by William Whewell, which soon replaced the older term of (natural) philosopher.

mong the most influential ideas of the 19th century were those of Charles Darwin (alongside the independent researches of Alfred Russel Wallace), who in 1859 published the book "The Origin of Species", which introduced the idea of evolution by natural selection.

Another important landmark in medicine and biology were the successful efforts to prove the germ theory of disease.

Modest Huys (1874-1932) | Luminist painter

Modest Huys was a Flemish🎨 Impressionist and Luminist painter.

From a young age, he worked in his father's painting and decorating business and later studied at the "Gentse Nijverheidschool" (Ghent Industrial School).

In 1891 or 1892, he came into contact with Emile Claus🎨, who encouraged his artistic inclinations.

Jenny Montigny (1875-1937) | Impressionist painter

Jeanne (Jenny) Montigny was a Belgian painter🎨.

Montigny's father was a lawyer and government official who oversaw several boards and commissions and was later Dean of the law faculty at the University of Ghent.

Her mother was of English origin.

George Morren (1868-1941)

George Morren was a Belgian painter. It belonged to the impressionist luminist school🎨 of the Belgian🎨 "Art Nouveau".

George Morren, third child of Anna Henrica Van den Wouwer and Arthur Morren, a wealthy merchant of grain in Antwerp, was born in Ekeren, the northern district of Antwerp, during the reign of King Leopold II.

He grew up in a bourgeois and Francophile family. His upbringing included an artistic education.

Léon de Smet (Belgian painter, 1881-1966)

Léon de Smet è stato un pittore Belgo🎨 ed il fratello minore del pittore Gustave de Smet (1877-1943), anch'egli famoso pittore.

Nacque a Gand, in Belgio, nel 1881. Ha ricevuto la sua formazione artistica presso la Royal Academy of Art. Insieme a suo fratello, apparteneva ai cosiddetti pittori "Sint-Martens-Latem", un gruppo di artisti che erano attivi nella zona con lo stesso nome.

Lo stile di De Smet è caratterizzato da un tocco impressionista e pointillista.

È rinomato per la sua capacità di costruire una composizione con pennellate rapide, brevi e sottotono, mantenendo sempre l'equilibrio.

René Magritte (1898-1967)

René Magritte, in full René-François Ghislain Magritte, Belgian Surrealist artist, one of the most prominent Surrealist painters, whose bizarre flights of fancy blended horror, peril, comedy and mystery.

His works were characterized by particular symbols - the female torso, the bourgeois “little man”, the bowler hat, the castle, the rock, the window, and others.

Two museums in Brussels celebrate Magritte: the René Magritte Museum, largely a biographical museum, is located in the house occupied by the artist and his wife between 1930-1954; and the Magritte Museum, featuring some 250 of the artist’s works, opened in 2009 at the Royal Museum of Fine Arts.

Milan Kundera | Quotes / Aforismi

Rene Magritte (Belgian Surrealist painter, 1898-1967) | Les Amants / The Lovers

• "..No one can do a thing about feelings, they exist and there's no way to censor them. We can reproach ourselves for some action, for a remark, but not for a feeling, quite simply because we have no control at all over it".

• "Contro i sentimenti siamo disarmati, poiché esistono e basta - e sfuggono a qualunque censura. Possiamo rimproverarci un gesto, una frase, ma non un sentimento: su di esso non abbiamo alcun potere".